Annual Conference of the Mining Ministries of the Americas (CAMMA '96)

Santiago, December 1996

By order of the last Reunion of Mining Ministries of Latin America, that has taken place in 1995, at the city of Caracas, Venezuela and previously at Cochabamba, Bolivia, the Ministers, Vice Ministers, Secretaries, Subsecretaries and Chiefs of Delegations, gathered in Santiago de Chile, the fifteenth day of the month of May of 1996, in the I Conference of Mining
Ministers of the Americas, organized by the Mining Ministry of Chile in the headquarters of the Economical Committee for Latinamerica and Carib (CEPAL) we formulate the following declaration:

SANTIAGO DECLARATION

WHEREAS:

That mining contributes decisively to the growth through the generation of foreign currency, fiscal collecting, creation of new jobs and that it favors the development of economic decentralization and a better articulation with the development of other industrial sectors, the herein signers manifest the following:

1 . Our satisfaction for the significant development that has had the exploration and exploitation of our mining resources, in the frame of the application of reforms that favor the growth of investment which manifests by the fact that 58% of the world total that will be invested in what remains of the century will have as destination the American continent which is equal to 18.000 million of dollars.

2. Our disposition to reinforce the policies and actions directed to intensify the exploration and exploitation of mineral deposits, and the intracontinental cooperation to modernize the institutions related to the development of mining. In such sense we consider necessary to increase the relations between organism in charge of the management of mining concessions and to intensify the interchange of experiences between the geological services and other govermental agencies in charge of mining,

3. Our interest in stimulating the relations between the enterprises and national and international institutions with the object of facilitating the capacitacion, the professional and academic improvement, the scientific-technological research, the transference of technologies and the protection of the environment in the mining ambit.

4. The preoccupation for the problems that face the mining production at small scale, since the operation of this tasks involve social and environmental aspects.

For such reason the Mining Ministries of the American continent agree to:

1. Institutionalize the Annual Conference of Mining Ministries of the Americas, for such they will gather once a year with the participation of Ministers, State Secretaries, Vice Minister, Subsecretaries or Delegates ordered by the same.

2. Realice the next Conference of Mining Ministries of the Americas in the city of Arequipa, Peru in the month of September of 1997. The Mining Ministry of Peru will accomplish the Executive Secretary and will consult a previous agenda with the other Ministries, nevertheless are of the interest of the signers the following matters: protection of the environment, mining concession regimes, situation of the preparation of the human resource and scientific-technological development in mining.

3. Entrust to geological services the publication of a geological chart of the mineral resources of America, whose coordination and elaboration of the final document of these services will be decided in the Iberoamerican Reunion of the same, which will take place at Santiago de 16 th of May of 1996.

4. We ask the CEPAL the elaboration of an Annual Report of Mining in America and we urge them to work together with this instance of Ministries recently created, the Latinamerican Organism of Mining (OLAMI).

5. We greet with approval the initiatives adopted by the gremial entrepreneurial organizations and the parliaments of the respective nations, supporting initiatives of this nature.

6. We will reinforce our intercontinental cooperation and we call the attention of the official agencies and multilateral financing organisms to contribute to improve the conditions in which the small mining exist.

CARLOS MAGARIÑOS
Mining Secretary of the Republic of Argentina

JOSE ANTONIO FLORES
National Mining Subsecretary of Bolivia

RAIMUNDO BRITO
Mining and Energy Minister of Brasil

RON SULLY
Assistant Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of Canada

LUIS ARMANDO GALVIS VALLES
Mining Vice Minister of Colombia

LUIS BERNAL MONTES DE OCA
Ambassador of Costa Rica in Chile

ANTONIO DE LOS REYES BERMUDEZ
Vice Minister of Basic Industry of Cuba

BENJAMIN TELIZKY
Mining Ministry of Chile

SANTIAGO CORDOVEZ NOBOA
Mining Subsecretary of Ecuador

MARIO MARTINEZ GUZMAN
Mining General Director of Guatemala

JOSE RIVERA BANUET
General Director of Mining Promotion and Operations of Mexico

CARLOS ABAUNZA
General Director of Natural Resources of Nicaragua

JUAN DAVID MENDOZA
Mining Vice Minister of Peru

GONZALO ILLARAMENDI
National Director of Mines and Geology of Uruguay

EVANAN ROMERO
Energy and Mining Vice Minister of Venezuela